More often than not, organizations prefer to use tools and solutions that offer them the greatest advantage to their competitors. Yet, so often companies deliberately settle for less, choosing to employ an inferior product in lieu of the superior solution.

Fortunately, organizations are capable of answering the question we pose in this series, using the example of source code management (SCM): Why not use the best?

As a Product Manager I’m constantly looking for the win-win option of something that provides flexibility with minimal complexity. Often this balance is only achieved by starting with the right philosophy and continually learning from customer experience.

Here at Compuware we converted from CA Endevor to ISPW﻿ for our Source Code Management (SCM). I noticed right away that ISPW used a superior way to implement exits. You simply go to a panel and select the exit you need to modify from a list of all available exits. This is important because there is no hunting around to find the exits—they are all listed.

Sometimes things like SCM products are naturally complex, but that complexity should be handled out of the view and participation of the user. The goal of a product should be what we’ve termed "elegant simplicity": a simple, intuitive and natural way to accomplish what needs to done.

Having now used ISPW versus Endevor, you quickly appreciate the benefits of its modern architecture. You quickly begin to value the improvements in efficiency, performance and power you get with a database. And, you quickly come to the conclusion, why did I let myself fall into the day-to-day trap of tolerating the loss of productivity from a Source Code Management that is a prisoner of the past?